Undergraduate Women of Color Majoring in STEM Fields: Sharing Their Stories

Abstract

In the United States, women, and especially women of color, have consistently been underrepresented in higher education STEM fields of study (Beede et al., 2011). This paper explores the representation of undergraduate women of color in higher education STEM fields of study. The purpose of this research is to better understand the experiences of, and effects of, psychosocial factors on undergraduate women of color currently majoring in STEM fields of study and consider how institutions can support similar students in their academic endeavors in STEM disciplines. The existing research is supplemented with a qualitative study derived from detailed one-on-one interviews with a group of 6 participants who tell the stories of their first hand experiences of being an undergraduate woman of color in a STEM field.